Moroccan Spiced Crab, Corn, and Lentil Soup

I have been having lots of fun coming up with ideas for recipes using the artisan food items I received recently from the famous health spa, The Golden Door. The Golden Door is sponsoring a recipe contest for VIP attendees of Eat Write Retreat conference for food bloggers later this month.

Each of us received a selection of their new line of artisan foods to use in creating new recipes. I drove over to the Farmer’s Market in Vista to look for some fresh vegetables or fruits to use with these organic products.

I bought purple sweet potatoes, pluots, peaches, apricots, and some fresh sweet corn on the cob. By the time I got home it was lunch time and I needed to fix something quick. It was a cool, overcast day and I was craving soup. I knew I had some crabmeat left over, and considered making crab and corn chowder.

I decided to try the Moroccan Harari Soup mix, but I didn’t know what Harari meant. When I looked it up I didn’t find “Harari”, but I found a descriptions for a famous Moroccan Harira Soup made with tomatoes and lentils. The seasonings for the soup include ginger, pepper, and cinnamon, and fresh herbs such as cilantro, parsley, celery and onion are usually included. It seemed to me that those flavors would be just fine as a seafood chowder, with the lentils taking the place of the potatoes. Why not try?

Golden Door’s Harari Soup ingredients are organic lentils, organic Moroccan spice blend, organic crushed red chili, organic dried onion flakes, and organic dried garlic flakes. I followed the instructions on the package for the Moroccan Harari Soup mix, adding vegetable stock to the mix and bringing it to a boil. The instructions called for tomato paste, but I decided not to use it in this crab and corn lentil soup with Moroccan spices.

While the soup was simmering, I steamed the 2 cobs of fresh corn until just tender and cut the kernels off the cob. When the lentils in the soup were tender, I folded in 1 1/2 cups of crabmeat and 1 1/2 cups of fresh corn kernels and simmered for another 5 minutes. The flavor of this soup was a little different from the flavors we usually expect in crab and corn chowder, but they worked well together. The whole family enjoyed it!

I had some of those tasty little stuffed peppers that I made with Golden Door’s Zazen Rice Medley left over and served them with the soup. Perfect lunch! (If you missed that post, click here for the recipe!)